Don't give UP

****** This how-to can totally be applied to ANY SUBJECT. I just chose psychology because it’s my major, and many psychology students ask me for advice.*******

I—Psychology Latte—present to my dear followers this highly requested psychology “how to.” Several people have sent me questions asking me how I organize my psychology materials and take notes for my classes, so here’s how I do it! Now, this is not me bragging, but I’ve managed to get straight A’s in my psychology courses since my first semester as a psychology undergraduate. Okay, fine—I admit I got one B in my inferential statistics class, but that was my WORST semester with my anxiety disorder. I am so glad I dealt with that! In the classes that were not statistics though, my grades have actually been between 98-100%—so obviously, something I am doing is working!

My note taking methods have varied and developed over my “career” as a psychology student. One thing that has been consistent, however, is my use of Cornell-style notes. Unless my notes are personal ideas for projects or something like formulas for math/statistics, I am loyal to the Cornell method. It is my favorite way to take notes in a way that actually makes me LEARN. To learn more about Cornell notes, click here!

HOW I TAKE NOTES, PART I: GENERAL NOTES:

(Image 1) This is how I color code my notes now. I believe that vocabulary/theories, primary concepts, examples, and persons/dates are the most important items in psychology. This is why I choose to make these items stand out so it’s easy to find—for example—the theory of self-regulation. Examples, are another ABSOLUTELY essential detail to understanding psychological theories. What’s the point of understanding a theory if you cannot apply it to an actual situation?

(Images 2 & 3) These two images are notes from my first semester of psychology. As you can see, I was not yet using my color coding system. I had not developed it yet (I was a young lil’ one back then!). As you can see, they are Cornell-style though. 

TIP: To make the answers to your question in your left column easier to find, box in the answer on the right side in a different color. 

Look at (Image 2): Left column Q- “In psychoanalysis, what is the method of exploring of exploring the unconscious that involves revealing whatever comes to mind?” Right column Q- I boxed “free association,” which is the answer. 

You can also further clarify the concept by coming up with a gross and immature example for concepts, such as my example for free association: “I love to fart and smell the stink.” <—how the heck does someone who comes up with examples like this get straight A’s? o_O

(Image 3) Another good way to write down a theory’s definition and example in your notes is to make a chart. Theory in the first column, definition in the middle column, example in the third column.

(Image 4) This is an example I created especially for this post (with an incorrect date because it obviously isn’t 2012—but that’s the year I decided to use) of how I do my notes now. In this photo, I wrote my examples in orange because my puppy Blair claimed possession of my pink pen this morning. Sorry!

Nowadays, my Cornell-style notes are clearly more advanced, as I now include the summary section at the bottom of my notes. In psychology, I don’t really use it as much to summarize as I do to think of my own creative examples that demonstrate the theories—that way, I am forced to think critically of how the theory would look in a real life situation. 

For example: if I were studying “impact bias,” the tendency for people to overestimate the duration and intensity of future emotions, then I would need to come up with a bad-ass example for my summary section. I could write at the bottom “An example of impact bias is when a person imagines their family being killed and Korean-barbecued by grizzly bears, and believes that they will fall into a deep depression that they could never ever recover from. This person is underestimating their ability to cope with traumatic events.” <—once again, how do I get straight A’s? o_O

HOW I ORGANIZE MY BINDER

(Image 5) See that purple plastic divider on the left side of that black folder I keep inside of my 3 inch binder? Well, there’s nothing interesting in front of it. Just my syllabi for the classes. What’s juicy is what’s inside of that mysterious black folder.

(Image 6) Ta-da! Mysterious black folder has spread itself open for you! I keep my favorite things in the world in here: peer-reviewed articles. I’m not being sarcastic… I seriously love peer-reviewed articles, because what I hope to do with my life one day is publish my own research, so those published articles are the established research I now admire and will one day step on and add to!

(Image 7) Behind my black folder, I keep snippets from peer-reviewed articles I’m interested in. This semester I am taking an experimental psychology class, so peer-reviewed articles are essential.

(Image 8) Behind my black folder, I have different tabs. For now, I only have a “notes” tab that I keep my class lecture notes under. 

HOW I TAKE NOTES, PART 2: LECTURE NOTES: 

I type my notes in class—either in a word document or using OneNote—and type virtually everything the professor says. When I get home, I organize my notes into the Cornell-style method, using the techniques I shared above in the “HOW I TAKE NOTES, PART 1: GENERAL NOTES” section of this post. 

TIP: Don’t take Cornell-style notes during class. I know many people do this and that’s great for them, but I just do not like to do so. I find it time-consuming and it dissolves my concentration…. plus, in-class notes just look messy if you are truly writing fast enough to write everything down! If you don’t have a computer or your professor does not allow computers in class, just use some loose-leaf paper and scribble your notes quickly during class. TRY TO GET EVERYTHING THE PROFESSOR SAYS (but obviously, use your judgement. You don’t need to write everything down if the professor is talking about his cat). Then when you get home, sit down in your comfy chair, take out a nice and clean sheet of paper, grab your ruler, set up your page in the Cornell-style method, and get to work! Go through your in-class lecture notes and translate the professor’s words into YOUR own words. Think critically, choose the most important parts of the lecture, make sub-topics. Do it all. 

HOW I PREPARE FOR MY EXAMS:

(Image 9) Take out your Cornell-style notes. Remember that fancy left column with all those questions? Pull those questions from your notes, type them out in a word document with plenty of room between each question, print out the document, and VOILA! You have a fantastic study guide! You can be creative and create fill-in-the-blank questions and challenge yourself to coming up with new examples on your study guide. For example, one of your study guide questions can be: “Describe the social comparison theory and give an example.” And you must challenge yourself to come up with an example that’s not anywhere in your notes, not even your summary section.

CONGRATULATIONS! You’ve graduated my “How to Ace Psychology Courses” lesson. Thank you for reading all of my tips! If you found this helpful, please reblog my post. Remember, this post IS dedicated to the subject of psychology, but these note-taking and studying techniques can be applied to virtually any subject! Have a lovely day, my smartblrs :)